Every year the eccentric designer Franco Sbarro and his students come to the Geneva Motor Show with something truly unusual to showcase. This year, apparently, they couldn't wait that long, so they unveiled their latest project at the Paris Motor Show. And man, is it stunning. Called, simply enough, the Eight, this modern take on the classic hot rod was tucked away in a back hall at the Porte de Versailles.

Unfortunately few of the publications that covered the show this year made it to that Fourth Pavilion to photograph the project, but we've managed to assemble a few images to show you what we're talking about. The Sbarro Eight was taken from design to reality in just eight weeks and features an eight-cylinder engine - two excellent inspirations for its name. That engine in question isn't a crate motor from Ford or Chevy, either: it's a Maserati engine, driving 360 horsepower to the rear wheels. The stunning show car also incorporates a variety of new technologies provided by the students' sponsors.

Those include a built-in tablet that provides navigational directions, internet access and text-to-speech technology for listing to books on the go. An Android-powered Parrot radio packs a 6.2-inch screen as well. All that's very fancy and everything, but what impresses us most is the matte-finish beast into which it's all packed. We have to hand it to the students at the Espera Sbarro School of Design in Montbeliard, France for pulling it all together so fast and so well.